Reason(s) behind the decision to rewrite mold in Rust

[stefanos82]

@rui314 As you have shared here https://x.com/rui314/status/2094677980857680052 you are in the process to rewrite mold in Rust.

Can you please explain your reasoning that lead you to this decision, other than memory safety mechanism Rust offers by default?

[rui314]

Mainly memory safety, but at the same time, Rust seems to provide better tooling, such as Cargo, easier cross-compilation, etc. Also, low-level tools like mold tend to be used for a very long time, and I think this decision will make more sense in retrospect 10 or 20 years from now than it may seem today.

Rewriting is also not as big a decision as it used to be. AI-assisted rewriting has dramatically changed the cost of doing this kind of work. I probably wouldn't have attempted this last year, but today it takes surprisingly little effort.

[stefanos82]

I hope you know what you are doing and not regret this at any future time.

I'm not going to lie, I am saddened by this, but I respect your decision.

[rui314]

Thank you for sharing how you feel. I understand the sentiment. I'm not the kind of person who's excited about rewriting everything in Rust either. Still, I believe this is the right move. Let's see how it goes.